‘HTGAWM’ Recap: In Case You Didn’t Know How Toxic Sam Was

More proof that Sam is trash.

How to Get Away With Murder is back from winter break, and tonight’s episode is depressing, but what else is new? Anyway, we revisit Annalise’s trauma from losing her baby. Last season ended with Nate beating Miller to death and Bonnie finishing the job by smothering him as he tried to cling to consciousness. Bonnie is distraught and the only person comforting her right now is Frank. Frank mentions that Gabriel knows her ex is dead and they need to figure something out. Of course, Frank calls Annalise to ask her to talk him through the whole thing and Annalise basically tells him, “Nope!”

She has a whole ‘nother demon to deal with. Gabriel broke into her house demanding answers about Sam. Annalise pours him a drink and tells him everything. She tells him that she’s not the reason his mom and Sam broke up, that Sam abandoned his mother before he was born (and lied to Annalsie), and then she reveals that Wes killed Sam and even plays what’s supposed to be an audio confession. Gabriel doesn’t seem to want to let it go. Throughout the episode, Annalise convinces him to move on from the past and even says, “It’s better to have a dead father than a bad one.”

Ouch

But you can’t blame her. Because this entire episode incorporates flashbacks of Sam being awful, but hold that thought.

Laurel informs the crew that Gabriel is Sam’s son. They’re all disturbed by this revelation because they think he’s investigating Sam’s death so they’re trying to figure out what to do. But of course, they jump to conclusions and assume he’s dead already, especially when Michaela mentions seeing blood on Bonnie’s leg at the wedding, and the fact that they haven’t seen him in a while (but we know where he is). Later on, they reach out to Frank to see if he killed Gabe, but Frank tells them to stop panicking and that he’ll probably turn up in the morning.

Then we flashback to Annalise and Sam returning from the hospital after her c-section. Sam helps her get in bed and pretty much abandons her. He looks up a Vivian Maddox in Chicago and gives her a call. In case you haven’t figured it out, that’s the woman he abandoned. She doesn’t answer the phone but he leaves an apology message, talmbout how he wants to meet his son and how he misses her and how they were together and how he never stopped loving her.

Later on, Annalise tells Frank she wants to adopt a baby and he’s adamantly against it. They get into a screaming match and Sam says she won’t adopt if she wants to stay married to him. Annalise says she’s going through with it with or without him. He says then it will be without him and leaves. He was going to leave anyway, but being an emotionally abusive prick makes it easier for him to storm off. This fool actually goes to Chicago. He lies and tells Annalise that he’s going to spend some time with his sister.

Vivian’s mom greets him after he knocks on the door and tells him to go away if he really wants to do what’s right, but on his way out he runs into 11-year-old Gabriel coming back from playing outside. He’s holding his basketball and the only exchange they have is Sam asking if he’s a Bulls fan. The answer is yes.

Hopefully, that was the day Gabe learned to be like Mike, not Sam.

Annalise’s kids know by now that Gabriel is alive but they’re concerned that he’s trying to find new evidence in the Sam case that he can bring to the DA. Asher says they’ll be okay because they have friends in the da’s office, specifically citing Miller…who they don’t know is dead.

Of course, they have good reason to be suspicious of Gabe! Hold that thought.

Annalise tries to kill herself after learning that her bid for adoption didn’t go through. She calls Frank, who doesn’t answer the phone, surprise, and begs him to come home, but he’s trash. It’s actually Bonnie who finds her unconscious from an overdose on pain pills and subsequently saves her life.

Frank confronts Sam when he finally returns home and gives him a piece of paper. Sam wants to know how Frank got ahold of if and Frank says he knows all about Sam’s Lying King shenanigans and tells him to just get rid of it and be the husband Annalise needs. Sam finds Annalise and pretends to care.

The episode ends with us hearing Sam’s voice reading an email, the same email that Frank printed out and handed to him. It’s an apology letter to Vivian for abandoning she and her son and all that jazz. He basically repeats all the stuff he said about still loving her, etc. Nate finally reappears during this montage. He heads to Bonnie’s house and tells her not to feel bad—that Miller’s death is his fault.

Next, Gabriel calls someone and says he screwed up because they found out who he is. But again, we knew he was the ops.

Now it’s a matter of figuring out who he’s working for.

Finally, Annalise’s ex-girlfriend, Eve, comes to visit Frank in the past, hands him the email and says she needs his help. We have no idea how she got it, but then we cut to the future where Eve has given Annalise the email and says Sam never deserved her.